#reposting cuz the link died!

[lopposting]

was carlo a bastard stalker? + more thoughts on blue blood's tailcoat

[reposting here cuz my answer was too long and linking is easier]

most of this is lifted from the inhuman one's theory here, also wrote out some of this in an earlier post

@ideas-on-paper

tbh the only thing really going for it is that the blue blood's tailcoat seems to be the "official" outfit of LOP, also just that between the sweepers and bastards I think carlo grew up unlikely to join the sweepers. also, theres another part of the theory that considering how carlo died, if he died in the first wave of the outbreak it might have been from close proximity with the alchemists whom the bastards served. but all of this is just conjecture

(I cropped the post btw) I also feel like the fact that this outfit is the promotional outfit and the one on the cover art is noteworthy. Like, the devs chose this to represent P, and their game, the most. [whether or not that constitutes it being the "canon" outfit is debatable] But also it could be that they just thought it was the drippiest outfit of the game (it is) and it doesnt necessarily mean anything

And then it hit me, symbolism that I feel might make more sense than Carlo being the "bastard"; and it's that P is shown wearing it. symbolically Bastard = illegitimate child (like how P is a "fictitious" child because he is a puppet)

also just noticed this: the outfit is called "blue blood's tailcoat", and blue blood is one of the symptoms of the PD

"Torn Doodle":

It itches. Peel the skin and there's blue blood, Blood. Blood. Pretty cocoon. Blue angel. Joyful appetite. Blue death. What a feast. Deathdeathanddeath. I' m a l i ve. It i t che s

"blue blooded" is also a figure of speech meaning someone born of high status (which is ironic considering these are the "bastards" uniforms). I think you could also see it as "blue-blooded" like a creature of ergo (puppet), like ergo is flowing through P (ergo is stored in the P)

very cool (also the demo "torn doodle" is slightly different from the launch one)

so closing remarks, I'm not sure if Carlo would've been a bastard. the bastards were also associated with the workshop union so maybe carlo would see the workshop as related to his father. He only seems to have disavowed him later in life tho (graduation) so maybe he hadn't switched specialties or whatever. I also don't know how much of Pino's skills were learned or inherited from carlo's time.

[skeetlebeetle]

haha i hav 69 followers nice. N E WAY look. i meant 2 save this 4 after the apply fic came out (way 2 long xplanation under the cut) but im impatient n i j made all this cool art so i think u shuld see it

(DONT MAKE ME TAP THE SIGN!!! if yr gonna use my art [don’t repost] u gotta credit me!!)

so i shuld probably start w this: im rlly tired its 1:30 am n this will mostly b incoherent i think.

OK. 1 of the 1st social medias i evr got as a kid wuz wattpad. ive made n deleted so many accounts.. the memories r craz,,, n e way, its mostly behind me now but i still check back on the website sumtimez n i check my notifs or whatevz. n sum1 i followed a while back is doing an apply fic that is basically like 6 percy jackson ocs.

now heres the thing.. i dont actually rlly kno what an apply fic is. but based on the description n other oc entries in the comment section its a thing where u giv the writer yr character n then they write it into a fic. which is p cool!! n i do luv 2 make ocs.

heres the other thing: i dont hav n e percy jackson-esque ocs so i had 2 make sum. n where did my mind immediately go?? ace attorney ofc cuz thats my obsession. so i decided 2 make sum ocs based on ace attorney characters. they were gonna b reeeeeally obviously ace attorney @ 1st but i didnt want it 2 b super easy 2 figure out so i changed up their names n gave em different designs n stuff. but basically they all hav the same backstories n personalities other than all the god stuff

turns out tho that i rlly like making knock-off percy jackson/ace attorney ocs so i made em like supa separate from their original ace attorney source n now theyre j kind of their own oc guise. i rlly luv how theyre turning out actually

N E WAY all of this 2 provide context 4 me 2 say that i wanted 2 save these designs n this ace attorney xplanation bc it was kind of a silly lil harmless prank way of me being able 2 say i snuck ace attorney characters into a percy jackson-esque fanfic even tho i didnt rlly cuz, once again, these r basically my ocs now. also idk if n e of em will actually make it into the fic yet. n i didnt want the writer of the apply fic 2 stumble upon my carrd (which is, yes, linked in my wattpad) n accidentally find my tumblr n see this post n then like. idk. disqualify me. "but beetle u didnt hav 2 tell tumblr n e thing abt these ocs!!!" well sumtimez u j wanna post art dude!!

BUT WHATEVER MAN!!!! im paranoid n the writer finding my tumblr let alone reading n e of this is highly unlikely. even if they did they wuldnt fucking care. so heres sum ocs i came up w. n in case its not clear (which it probably isnt 4 at least 2 out of 4 of these designs/names), rich is gumshoe, jay is edgeworth, phoenix is phoenix (woaw), n spyridoula is maya

note that 'rich' n 'dick' r both nicknames 4 richard, jay's name is basically 'scales of justice' n also his dad died, phoenix is so lazy that his name is actually j 'phoenix,' n spyridoula is i think j named the word 4 'spirit' in greek. also shes a hippie

FINALLY: i think i got locked out of my old pinterest which was fine cuz i wasnt rlly using it n e more but 4 this apply fic i had 2 make either a moodboard or pinterest board 4 each character n y wuld i put in the effort of making a moodboard?? so heres my new pinterest which is j boards 4 these characters:

x

[kocherry]

Repost: I accidentally deleted my ao3 fic which made me almost cry btw xD altho I haven't finished the entire fic just yet I'm still polishing Act, Interlude, and Epilogue. And I will post the entire fic in Tumblr once I'm finished <3

Click the title for the ao3 link :>

"This is a story after I died in the real world then getting isekai'd into Genshin Impact but why the fuck is the Director of the Harbingers is the one who greeted me instead of Paimon?!"

So far this is my progress:

Prologue ✔️

Act I: Masquerade ✔️

Act II: Music of the Night ✔️

Act III: The Phantom of the Opera ✔️

Act IV: All I Ask of You - ✔️

Act V: Point of No Return - TBA

Interlude + Epilogue - TBA

Aaaand I did base the chapter names from the musical play "Phantom of the Opera" but this isn't a song based fanfic, the titles do have something to do with each chapter. And the main reason is cuz Pierro with his reminded me so much of Phantom/Erik and his white mask .

Also I would like to note that I'm not a minor, I'm at the 20+ range :>

[multistanisms]

Let Our Circle Be Unbroken;  Prologue | NCT

FANDOM: NCT

PAIRING: Jaehyun x Taeyong, Yuta x OC

WORD COUNT: 1,703

RATING: PG-13

POTENTIAL TRIGGERS: Mentions of violence, blood, pain, animal death

SUMMARY:  Surviving a near death experience comes with a lot of surprises when warlock Jeong Jaehyun finds a dragon in a place that holds tragic memories for him. Nothing is as whirlwind, though, as when Jaehyun begins to meet the little clan of misfits Taeyong has gathered over the years and a mystery is revealed.

Author Notes: Reposting this from my archived blog to update the links [cuz I do not remember how to log into my old fic blog]

Previous || Masterlist || Next

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

‘Shit. This is bad. Really bad.’ Jaehyun thought as he ran. His magic enabled him to carry an unnatural speed in his rush, but the blood seeping from his side was an impending sign of how quickly he could lose consciousness if he wasn’t careful. He could hear the hunters, however, so stopping was not a viable option. The small group was far enough out of reach to not make a direct hit on him with their weapons but still close enough to hear their hounds and shouts. Humans with little more than fear and a prejudice against those who were different. Jaehyun was no fool to think he was immune to the tragedy of the human mind; he’d lived long enough to know better. No one who was born supernatural - even humans who happened to have a supernatural ancestor and ended up gifted - could escape being the object of human failure. 

This, though, was by far the closest in centuries the warlock had felt close to death. Even his magic was waning, losing it’s precision as his vision began to blur and darken at the edges. ‘Fuck, I’m running out of time.’ The thought hit him harder than a swift punch to the stomach or an unexpected kick to the nether region, and the warlock dove into the shadows of a nearby alley, cloaking himself. A swift escape was of utmost importance if he planned on surviving the wound in his side and keeping his eyes; the thing Jaehyun knew they would take as a trophy from his death. Dark hair was caked with sweat and Jaehyun is glaringly aware that he needs to focus on escaping or he may not make it to see the sunrise. His manor isn’t safe anymore, he knows that. If they could flush him out from his café, they no doubt knew where his home was. His other properties were currently being used as safehouses, and Jaehyun was in no way going to kickstart any stress or shock to those guests. A shaky breath shook Jaehyun’s body as he closed his eyes, glamour falling. As he looked up at the sky, he opened his eyes, revealing reptilian green irises accented by rainbow slits. His glamour wasn’t a priority compared to the situation he was in. A breath taken too hard made him wince as he leaned his head back against the dark grey terracotta wall.

‘Damn it, Jaehyun, think.’ he scolds himself, hand pressing to the gunshot wound in his side. ‘Think, think, think. Somewhere. There has to be somewhere.’ 

He’s jolted back to reality viciously when the renewed sounds of baying from the dogs is suddenly much closer. Large hunting breeds, vicious when they find their intended target. Fear riddles through Jaehyun’s blood like a discarded cigar on gasoline, and there’s a sudden flash through his mind. The answer is a risk, and there are so many emotions that bubble through his heart, but escape is at his grasp and he isn’t going to squander it because of a past he’d rather forget. Hope blooms to simmer down some of the fear, and his eyes ripple to life, glamour and natural color fighting as he brings the necessary casting rune to the forefront of his mind. He knows he has one, maybe two or an even slimmer three chances at this before he completely loses consciousness from the blood and he’s killed by fangs and crossbows alike. He traces the rune over the concrete, begging for it to work. Uneven breath halts when the magic fizzles and dies, leaving a pale shape on the cement. ‘No. Damn it to hell.’ he thought, frantically scribbling the rune on the cold pavement again. ‘Not here. Not like this. Please, no.’ Every fiber of his being was focused between panic and the need to escape. The rune fizzles at the edges and Jaehyun’s heart begins dropping before the magic sticks and the rune changes shape into the round portal that offers him escape. He moved to toss himself through the hole when his relief was cut short. A loud growl and sharp pain exploded over his arm as one of the dogs located him. With a yelp, Jaehyun’s balance was lost and he fell into the space, dragging the canine with him into the brief abyss before he crashed into a table on a large porch that gave way. 

Air left him in a rush and a weak groan, the overall pain finally making it almost impossible to stay awake. The dog released his arm and went to find purchase elsewhere when something snatched it up, and Jaehyun was vaguely aware of potential danger when he heard the brief scuffle of his predator becoming prey instead. Danger. The manor in the field wasn’t safe, either, it seemed. His vision was nearly completely black at this point, all he was aware of was black and rainbow dancing before him as unconsciousness took him hostage. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dragons had long faded from the forefront of the minds of the normal humans, but it wasn’t so simple as they had died off or been killed. Most had merely learned to stay in their human forms when among the masses, clans separated into smaller numbers to keep the species safe. Lee Taeyong was the youngest of the small sect from his clan, and the first to leave to find a clan of his own. His older sister, Areum, and their parents supported the choice, knowing full well that Taeyong had never really been able to be happy among only dragons. 

“Something else calls to you, little brother. You have to follow that to find your happiness.” Areum had told him as he had prepared to leave. IT was an emotional goodbye, but somehow, Taeyong knew he was heading into great things. 

And so the young dragon had gone off, found a clan of his own, and though the ranks weren’t large, the overall species was well mixed. And sometimes the clan had their own business to attend to, which was how Taeyong had found himself wandering the world, looking for a kind of vacation home for when the clan could reunite under one roof again. He had found one and had been working on remodeling and repairing it. The walls had all come down at their own pace, and the dragon had replaced them all and brought the house back to a lovely splendor. The high, covered wrap around porch was carefully set with a few swings, tables and chairs. Various plants were hung from the edge of the covering, a few potted plants settled among the railing around the porch. What had been an abandoned mansion that felt tragic and hopeless had started changing into a loving space. There was no furniture, but that would come in time. For now, the most important part was complete. The building was ready for it’s first bout of excitement when the clan gathered, and Taeyong was happy to think of that as he sat on the porch swing near the front door with a hot cup of tea as he watched the fall leaves drift about on the wind. His dream of making the property a home was almost done. A large garden ran along the west side of the mansion, a flower garden with a large pond and gazebo just north of the back entrance of the house. Imagining the fun and laughter that would one day be had made him content and he was humming softly to himself when there was a ripple of magic that pricked at his senses and made the hair on his arms stand up, goosebumps tracing up pale skin even under the soft, warm fabric of his favorite hoodie. Said goosebumps shivered briefly into black and rainbow colored scales that faded faster than they appeared. 

Curious, Taeyong reached to set his cup on the side table next to the swing, standing to walk down the porch steps and look around, hand resting on the large picnic table settled onto a large stone garden setup he had made for au fresco dining. Face contorted in confusion, he hummed curiously, moving to turn back when the magic came back in a much stronger wave, and Taeyong shifted out of protective instinct. The strong scent of coppery blood hit his nose first, then a loud crash and growling. When the intruding creature realized there was someone else, it released its prey to charge at Taeyong, only to wind up eaten by the large dragon. Tension still in his muscles, he turned his attention to the now destroyed table. The tabletop itself was surprisingly intact, the legs, however, would need to be remade. Now, though, with the immediate threat out of the way, the dragon brought himself closer to the scent of blood to better investigate. What he found was startling for him. The male was unconscious and very hurt, and despite the wounds and ragged breathing, Taeyong could see the male was beautiful. Magic was a palpable taste in the air, telling Taeyong the young man was likely a warlock or witch. What struck the dragon as odd was the intense need to save the other. 

Shifting back into human form, he lifted the other with ease, forgetting about the blood around his mouth and on his clothes as he carried the male into the mansion and laid him on the couch. “Where did you come from, beautiful?” he asked, looking over what he could to assess the damage. Blood had dried the male’s clothing to his skin, and there was a chunk of the man’s arm from the animal biting him. It was a lot to patch up for just one dragon, so Taeyong made a choice as he wrapped the dark blanket he’d been using around the unknown male. He walked to the porch to grab his phone, dialing a number as he knelt by the couch to brush his hand through the dark hair of the hurt man. When the other side fo the line picked up, Taeyong smiled. 

“Hey there, handsome. Are you and Arashi free? I need some serious help and your girl has the best magic to do so.”

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

Hey, hello! I am really sorry for sending this, I just hope I’m not overstepping any boundaries as I’m about to ask for help which is very important right now. Our Sleepy cat requires urgent medical attention from the veterinarian. She is experiencing pain and I don’t have the money to take her to the vet to help her. so, I am asking for help from any well-wisher. Even if you can’t spare some money to help, reposting the link would be of great help. She helps me in taking care of my daughter since they are best friends and she is my only close relation with mom since my mom died last year 2021. If you would be interested to help, I have Pinned the post on my blog, please you can try reply to the ask privately as well because some people like getting creepy over this matter. We are alright, pray for us, please. ♥️🙏

Okay I'm actually gonna use this as an opportunity to set some boundaries cuz if I don't do it now I'll never get around to it- donation asks aren't something I really encourage sending to me. I can't donate myself, because I don't have a bank account or a reliable source of income, and I don't have a large enough audience for your request to reach... anybody, really. Obvs if somebody does send an ask abt that kinda thing I'll post it, but there really isn't anything I can do beyond that. I also won't post them rifht away bcuz spamming posts like that is a good way to get those posts buried and I want everybody to have a fair shot. I rlly don't care if ppl send in asks like this, like y'all do what you gotta do to get by I'm not judging, but I think it's important that ppl understand I am just one broke teenager with a mediocre following who can't actually. Do much to help.

That being said, I do actually hope u get the funds to help ur cat dude, sorry I can't help rhat much

[linztheanimelover]

*not my art link to creators https://the-stove-is-on-fire.tumblr.com/.

https://liminalhollow.tumblr.com/post/692516264756822016/amp

https://beetlelemonade.tumblr.com/post/709304944698769408/its-kinda-lonely-being-king/amp

https://impyssadobsessions.tumblr.com/post/685534939710636032

Danny in full regalia was shown on every TV in his home world. What was unknown to them his message will also be broadcasting in every realm and every universe. For those without the tech was either coming through on radio or holograms in world without any.

"Greetings from the Infinite Realm my name as most of you may know is Phantom, to those that do not I am the Crown Prince of the Infinite Realms the Protector of New Beginnings and Ends, the Balance of Life and Death protector of Realms, Keeper of Doorways and so on and so forth. My job is to protect The Realms and help the restless Souls who couldn't or wouldn't have a new home to find a new place in the multiverse. Many make a new life for themselves some are even native to the Between and are called Neverborns. Everyone and most everything is made of Ectoplasm because of where we are it is found in every Universe and is the building blocks for everything. Every living creature has it from the smallest micro organism to the very planet you are on it’s even in the very air you breathe but it is minimal.

When something dies and let’s say brought back or is saved in time you gain a little more each is a little different. Some places in the world because of nature portals, death, ley lines, or some other thing can have much more Ecto then normal and can be detected on different equipment.

With enough Ecto in the environment they can be reborn in the Realms and be like me where you can truly interact with the world and be seen. Those that don’t have enough Ecto can become a Shade which can still watch over but takes so much energy to interact with the world. Those with the will or need to stay like a mother who wants to see her child or grandchildren grow or those lost in a tragic way. Some do decide to move on to a better place or are take care of if they were a bad Soul.

But because of this natural wonder we have vast ecosystem with species that to many worlds that are long since forgotten or extinct even some that can only be found here. We have many communities with rich history and cultures from all times. There are special little pockets all over that holds every afterlife.

Think of the Realm and its special properties as the cushion between all Dimensions always expanding and contracting as needed for various worlds to grow. Without this lining between worlds many of your home worlds WILL be destroyed because of collisions that is a scientific reality and a magical fact. We will share our research with all who will look be will to look at our results and even give ways to do your own research on that.

I am broadcasting this to you as a warning in my Birth Dimention DCU-14-07-DP there are two scientists Drs Fentons who because of their bigotry and obsession not only with Ghosts but to prove that everyone from the Realms is Evil, they not punched a hole into the Realms but steal and experiment on MY people they are the only people to study there field of research on a scientific level and because of this they are by default the only “experts”. And instead of others doing more research or even looking into other ways like magic because their world does have it what they said was taken for verbatim. There is much more to it but I’ll save that for later.

Once they PROVED that we exist not how we a species act but only that we EXIST the local government decides that it was ok to attack and try to destroy not only my people but the Realm and other Universes because to them all on the other side is truly Other and undeserving of existence. So now it’s not just my problem but yours too because without us everything in the multiverse will be deteriorating or collapse or colliding together destroying everything. Their cruelty knows no bounds that they even attack those who were brought back medically but those who could not help that they where they were born in an area with higher than average Ecto.

I know their cruelty the most because my Birth name was Daniel Jackson Fenton. What my parents didn’t know was that there portal needed a magic sacrificial and one day after they finished making it I went down to our BASEMENT because they couldn’t make it anywhere else and turned it on accident. But for some cosmic reason when all other versions of me died, Souls destroyed to keep the Fenton “legacy” open not even given the chance to pass on anywhere because they were so shredded. I, the skinny 14 year old me became what was considered the “perfect balance between life and death” and given a second chance. And through the trials and trauma of the past 3 years since that day I stand before you now a Prince pleading that if it comes to it help me Ghost like myself only make up 20% of the afterlife help me stop this madness before it truly becomes a genocide.

From now until this ends, we’ll keep everyone posted like a newscast and will also educate you on our home so that you may see us as people too. Because we are sentient and are sapient and can feel pain we are not echos of those that passed. I’m still living even without a pulse.

*sorry for any misspelling*

Prompt idea: You gain a freckle somewhere on your body every time someone wishes you well or ill, with the two being different colors. Most people accumulate a few hundred, but celebrities tend to be covered in them.

Vigilantes moreso.

One of batpham is very confused why the nondescript new student/barista/whatever Danny's doing in Gotham is *covered* in these freckles. Danny is also very concerned over their number.

Alternatively: Why he doesn't have any (Because Amity Parkers are very careful to be neutral in the fortune they bestow on others, because you don't just wish for things there)

!!! Oh man I love this idea so much.

I wonder if celebrities have to like cover up the freckles n stuff if they’re actors. various roles require different amounts of freckles to tell the story of the character they’re playing.

Speaking of, Batman would fully be almost fully covered in freckles. Sure, people hate Bruce Wayne, but THAT many threats?! It doesn’t make sense. Something is up.

Danny doesn’t hide it. Either fully covered in freckles or absolutely none, Danny is an oddity. I also enjoy the idea of the Flash family taking Danny under their wing in this situation.

If asked, Danny shrugs it off and says some reason that is just nonsense.

OOOOOOOOO what if he has no freckles because he’s dead?! Either because they vanish from his death or all of the freckle he would’ve gained just no longer appear because he is dead and it somehow nullifies the freckles????

I’m going to be rolling this idea around in my skull for weeks thank you for your ask my guy sjejekwnwkbtkkeb

[stories-from-mybrain]

I am not the sidekick

Hey, first time posting, please be kind. I’m trying to figure out how to link content, so once I do I can link the chapters together. If I get far, I might come back and change some stuff in earlier chapters to fit storyline, but who knows. Please don’t repost or claim as your own. This isn’t a fan fiction, it’s just somthing I’m pulling from my brain.

—————

Summery; the main character dies as a sidekick/love interest and is left behind by her hero… idk where it’s going so might update this part if it goes anywhere.

Ch 1

My death was too cliche for my taste.

I grew up watching old shows, the ones where you have the obvious main character/hero. The hero always seems to have some type of invisible ability to never die, but everyone else was almost never a fixed variable.

One of my least favorite character deaths was the stereotypical death trope of the sidekick. Wherever a sidekick died, it was always seconds before the hero accomplished a task bigger than any other task they had ever faced.

I'll be honest, I understand the reason. It's to build the main character stronger than before, for them to struggle between the one they cared about and the bigger "everyone else" or "moral compass" or whatever other crap the authors made up back then.

But it was stupid. Why couldn't the main character get both? Why did they have to choose. And even if they did chose, why did it have to be so damning to the other party involved.

I only began thinking these thoughts when I first joined the academy; a place where the "invincible" heros were filtered from everyone else and doted upon or even worshiped. Everyone else were just sidekicks, or worse; expendables.

As a child, I thought I’d be a hero. But when I got my powers, I thought at the very least i'd be able to catch the eye of a hero, by showing off my cool abilities and earn my position as a sidekick.

But then I grew up and realized, nobody would want me. And my poor younger self would never guess I was tossed in with the expendables.

But really, there were so few of us with powers anyway, why was the system so harsh on us?

Oh, yeah, maybe cuz we were the only things standing between the villains and the regular folk, aka 'humans' (as if we weren't also humans). *Insert big dramatic eye roll here*

But I digress.

Where was I… oh yeah, I died that cliche "sidekick" death I mentioned. Oh, did I not mention I upgraded from expendable to sidekick? Oh I think it's becosue I left out the part I somehow snagged the 'love interest' position? *Insert an even bigger eye roll here*

Now, enough explanation.

My gloriously, dreadful cliche death:

I, as a sidekick, was facing my death clock. It was actually a long and excruciatingly slow, and glitchy loading bar. It even offered an estimated timer, but it was unhelpful as the bar occasionally froze for a second and the estimated seconds would jump to minutes before jumping down to seconds again when the loading continued.

Fighting was a blurry mess around me as I clicked my long fake fingernails impatiently, willing the bar to load faster.

I glanced up to see the hero, a tall lean dude with a buzz cut, duck under debris flying his way.

He turned and caught my eye, grinning as he raised his eyebrows in a question. A sucker for cute smiles I had to blink twice before I regained control of my vocal cords and shouted, "half way done!"

I glanced down, noticing the bar was closer to finished than I had said, but then froze again, then resumed. I took second to look at the villain, a masked figure breaking walls and throwing debris with pure strength. I avoided looking where the other villain lay sprawled, his eyes open but glazed over in death.

We had been lucky, a few others from the academy had lured most of the villains from hiding as we reached one of their bases. My hero and I were on the easy mission of grabbing whatever information we could use against the villains. It was supposed to be quick, snappy and with very little fighting risk. My hero seemed to be holding his own, possibly teasing the villain as he dodged, even knocking a few rocks from the air as they flew towards me. I was unconcerned with it, I knew he could handle anything with his ability.

"You guys have 1 minutes before the distress signal is sent out." A voice buzzed in my ear. It was my hero’s sidekick #1, Johny, my little brother. He had his fingers an toes in his electronics, keeping an eye out for the villains who had left.

I clicked my fingernails even more impatiently against the table.

The bar reached centimeters away from completion. Some weird six sense tingled up my spine as I recalled the cliche sidekick death in the movie I had watched last night. My imagination was just running wild again, like normal.

I usually tried to ignore these thoughts and focus on my task, and all would be well. But something seemed to urge me this one time, and I turned to look behind me to see if I would be stabbed in the back or something. Since I was considered a 'love interest', villains didn't often go for the kill immediately but try and capture first. Then I’d usually be held as hostage until the hero outsmarted the villain. But they might not, since I was still also a sidekick. We had no audience right now, so the hero’s weren’t always morally obligated to save people. I trusted my hero.

There was nobody behind me.

Ofcourse not, this wasn't some cliche old outdated TV show. Infact the only thing behind me was a wall.

The wall disappeared a few moments later as the villain tore it apart and tossed it at the hero.

I realized now, what used to be a big room in a several story cement building was now closer to an open balcony, the cement ceiling barely being held up by the inner pillars, half of which we're already torn to shreds earlier in the fight.

A clean breeze flew in and brushed at the skin not covered by my inconveniently low cut clothes.

I shuddered, I needed to finish the download, grab the USB and run toward my hero to get the hell out before the ceiling completely collapsed.

As I began to turn back to the computer, a weird tingle spiraled up my spine and I heard a soft whistle, I first thought I was imagining it.

I spun around and noticed the download hit completion and the screen darken.

But I wasn't staring at the screen. I was staring at something long and thin shuddering between me and the screen, commanding all my attention.

A long wooden shaft seemed to have materialized from the center of my chest, causing me to stumble back, then forward against the desk. It had hit the one part of me that my embarrassingly low cut clothes did not protect against. Any lower or to the side in either direction and the cloth would have protected me and the arrow would merely bruise me, or at the most, even break a few ribs. As I stared, red began to seep down my stomach, warm and ticklish.

I had a hard time processing this turn of events. I didn't feel anything, not yet, I was probably in shock.

"How long!?" The hero shouted at me. He was still fighting the villain behind me, and hadn't seen the arrow.

His words barely made it through to my brain, but it did make it. Unable to tear my eyes away from the arrow, I fumbled for and grabbed the USB, yanking it from the computer.

That one simple movement seemed to let the pain flood my brain. I stumbled back again, close to the edge where the wall had been. Now only open air of being two stories up was the only thing my mind zeroed on.

my vision blurred.

I had things to do. I told myself. I was dying. I had to get the USB to the hero. I was dying.

Blinking away my thoughts, I took a deep breath, or I tried to. It was shaky and I definitely did not feel my lungs expand as much as it should have naturally.

Gritting my teeth, I waited for my vision to clear and prepared for one last push. If I was dying, I'd at least try and make it count. I didn't have the luxury of choice. I wasnt the main character. And I wasn't a hero, I was a sidekick. I died for good.

I knew by the time the next wave of pain washed over me I wouldn't have the strength anymore. With my freehand I yanked the arrow from my chest, then tossed the USB to where I heard fighting and shouted. All with my last breath:

"Brian!"

What was supposed to be a shout, wound up being a half shout of a jumble of words, everything spun.

I couldn't see my hero, so I had no idea if he had gotten the USB or even noticed me collapse. But it was too late to try again. For all I knew, I'd tossed it to the villain.

But, I didn't have the conscious strength to think about that. The last thing I heard, as my world fell into a thick comforting blackness, was a booming crack as the remaining cement pillars collapsed under the weight of the ceiling above.

Continue to ch 2

[courier2lw]

It won’t be easy Changing style The shape I’m in It just might take awhile But in the end I know you’re going to see That what we’ve got is

Something short of paradise A little bit less than we might like I know this ain’t heaven It’s close enough for me I know this ain’t heaven It’s close as I’ll ever be

@fionainculta

[fapangel]

How do you get all of this information for your updates? I read them, and find them the best source of information I can find, but how the hell do *you* put them together? There's always like a bajillion links, and it's information from places spread out over a pretty large area, and always cross-referenced. How do you do it?

It takes a LOT of time and I'm getting better at it as I go. And I freely admit I'm cribbing from other OSINT accounts all the time. For instance, I'll check the Finnish scribblemap, see where they are showing advances or whatever I never heard about, then go search for the name of that village or whatnot on Twitter and see what pops up. I was able to find the recent reports of damage in Makariv that way, for instance. (I've got the Finns in my OSINT bookmarks folder now but since I'm not on Twitter I can't actually ask them directly about their sources.) The other absolute fucking hero is an account of "10+ volunteers" who geolocate as much footage as possible and also repost other twitter users who geolocated stuff. I also always click through on various videos to see if someone in the comments has geolocated it. Geolocated video is of tremendous value because it confirms that an event actually happened where it's said to have happened. It also shows you exactly where it happened; many videos are just titled "Kharkiv oblast," which could mean near the city or anywhere in the entire fucking region. It doesn't just filter out mislabeled videos reposted by idiots (or info ops) it gives you a much finer-grained understanding of where things are happening.

The way I sort is to open my OSINT bookmarks folder (in incognito mode because Twitter is making itself more and more of a cunt about preventing non-account owners from viewing it) and scrolling through various feeds. As I see salient data I (on my second monitor) ctrl-T in a non-incognito window, ctrl-v to paste, then right-click to add the tab to a new group that I'll name "Odessa" or "kharkiv" or just "general" or w/e. I have to copy-paste to a normal window because Chrome loves to die on me cuz "muh RAM" and incognito mode doesn't save in history so you lose everything if it dies. Ha! Ha! THANKS TWITTER, FUCK YOU.

Then I read through all that shit, parse it, etc. Sometimes have to let it percolate a little to draw a bigger picture. Then I start pulling it all together.

I'm also reading the ISW daily reports, and reading the Ukrainian general staff bulletins directly as often as possible to ensure the ISW didn't leave out any tidbits that I find interesting, (there's been a few) and generally just, I'm going fucking insane! INSANE! INSANE!

And you all thought I was nuts when I was just pouring over Google Earth looking for DPRK TEL bunkers didn't you?

Oh, I keep Google Earth Pro open too (which isn't helping the RAM situation lmao Google) so I can quickly copypaste village names or decimal lat/long into the search and see where the hell these things are said or geolocated to be happening. This is confusing sometimes esp. with UMoD reports because some damn villages have the same name; you've got to be careful to sanity check the oblast/area of operations as well. Google Pro is free now btw and has been for a while, it's still a surprisingly powerful too.

[ji-yaaan]

Jessamine-rose asked:

Ohh hiiii!! I really loved your leona fic, it was so soft!! X3 may i request idia and jamil seeing their short mc wearing their hoodies?? Headcanon or one-shot whatwver you are more comfortable with!! I would like to request a but of spice as well if you dont mind.

𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐇𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬♡

Headcanons with: Idia, Jamil, Kalim, Jack

Note: Yo this idea is so cute I'm melting as I write this- this scenario is just wholesome and I won't forgive myself if I sully this wholesomeness... Oh but Jamil however- ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Oh btw I added in some characters I can imagine with this secnario lol. Ok on to the headcanons!

And yes... I reposted this cuz tumblr hates me and won't let me use the tags... I don't stay up til 5am for nothing bro-

°•°•°•°•°•𝑰𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝑺𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒅•°•°•°•°•

After 8 rounds of Mario kart Idia destroying you 8 times lol cuddled up in the blankets as the both of you crush your consoles attempting to win a round.

It's getting pretty late, but game time is holy for the both of you, so both of you gotta make time to schedule the most awaited activity of the day! GAME TIME~

But after a long day of brain damage at school *cough braincell squad cough* anyone is bound to get exhausted. Taking a break from the game, Idia takes off his jacket and nyooms away to the kitchen to get some chips and soda for you two.

"Potato chips? check~ Soda? check~" Idia smiles as he excitedly makes his way into his room to crush you at the game again.

Oh my what's this? He found a rare treasure lying in his room!!! Quick! What does he do now??? OH MY GOD! You were sleeping... BUT YOU WERE WEARING HIS HOODIE! What is this cuteness? What is this ultra uwu energy? What is this fluff doing here? That's it! Idia has now died of uwu. Respawn later...

While Idia was holding his bags of chips and cola, he can't help but blush at how cute you were! You looks sooooo smol in his jacket- congrats you stole Idia's heart.♡♡♡

I'd say Idia's greatest weakness is cute stuff and small things. So you looking so smol in his jackets is just going to give him heart combulsions.

Idia will probably crouch in the floor to stare at your sleeping face. He'd sit right next to you and stare at you for a while. "Hehe..." Linking his arms with yours as he playfully pokes your cheeks.

He'd rest his head on your shoulder still blushy wushy cuz you're just sooo adorbs♡ "Games can wait for tommorow.."

•°•°•°•°•°•𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍 𝑽𝒊𝒑𝒆𝒓•°•°•°•°•°

Like the usual, the Scarabia dorms is up for a party 24/7 because of the happy go lucky kalim. Jamil is still pissed like the usual too...

While kalim was performing his thing entertaining the guest... A wild Jamil appeared! Care to send love??? Jamil makes his way to you, so he can finally chill and recharge from chaos with a powerhug. But as he was just inches away from from you... Dammit someone just have to ruin his moment.

"WAHHHH! Y/N! OH NO I'M SO SORRY!" Some idiots just have to ruin his time with you... Drinks spilt in your top, leaking wet from the juice that spilt on you.

Jamil will just sigh and volunteer to take care of another problem yet again, just like the usual. BUT! Before he takes care of those stuff PRIORITY FIRST! You need to be taken care of first ;>

Jamil will drag you in an empty room to change... now all thats left is to change in clean and dry clothes- Wait....Wow just the luck you both have... No one got spare clothes... what now?

Of course Jamil will offer his hoodie! He can't have you walking around uncomfortable in damp clothing!

When you walk out of the room... Cute... What is this cute creature? Since you are small and short, Jamil's hoodie is oversized on you. The sleeves go way past your fingers, and the big jacket makes you look even smaller in general.

Jamil's having a lowkey midlife crisis inside his head, but gotta keep looking chill and cool, so he just settles with a pinch on the cheek.

HOWEVER! When you go back to the party in the banquet halls. Everyone seeing you will comment how tinier you look like in a big hoodie. Everyone is just going ballistic with the smol and cute comments. Jamil is not happy about this.

As people are making cute comments about you. You'll just blush and freeze on the spot. BUT JAMIL HOWEVER... SNEK BOI IS BURNING WITH RAGE AND JEALOUSY... I mean... That's his hoodie you were wearing. Are they blind? Should he hypnotize people to do stupid things later?

After the party... Oho ಠ ͜ʖ ಠ with Jamil going jealous a little while ago... He'll hug you tighter this time, his chin resting in your head. "Don't look cute in front of other people... I'm the only one you're allowed to look cute for."

Expect markings here and there in the morning... Take this sentence however you like...

•°•°•°•°•𝑲𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒎 𝑨𝒍 𝑨𝒔𝒊𝒎•°•°•°•°•

Midnight trip in the clouds with your local sunshine boi! Riding the magic carpet with kalim is one of the most magical experience! Moonbathing with the stars WHILE YOU SIT BESIDE A LITERAL STAR LIKE KALIM TOO! as kalim cheerfully tells fun stories while laughing.

But of course the night today was kinda chilly and cold but you forgot to bring your sweater with you... Dammit it was really cold today. But somehow seeing kalim smile warms you up! I can't blame you though-.

When a really cold wind blew past the two of you... THAT'S IT! IT WAS REALLY COLD TODAY! You shivered while you held unto your arms and shoulders in attempts to keep yourself warm.

Of course Kalim notices this and offers his cardigan in uwu style! "Oh? Y/n are you cold? Oh! If you want, you can use my cardigan! Hehe..." Kalim brightly smiles like the usual. A blinding smile to keep the sleep paralysis demons away.

Frankly, Kalim is not that big, but his jacket still drooped on you which was very cute in Kalim's eyes!

"Y/n you look so small~ how cute!!" Kalim just casually blurts out, no embarrassment or whatsoever...

Of course it's a bit embarrassing for you at first, but Kalim's too pure and innocent for this world, so it's mainly just rainbows and sunshine being with him.

While the both of you are up in the air, maybe he'll offer a hug too if you're still cold. ಠ ͜ʖ ಠ it wouldn't be a sin to decline right?

•°•°•°•°•°•𝑱𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒍•°•°•°•°•°•

As the both of you are walking home, casually strolling in the roads that leads to the ramshackle dorm, this night was especially chilly.

The cold breeze was not cooperating this time as it continues to blow past the two of you. "Brrrr" this was cold... this was really cold... It was stupid not to bring your jacket with you when it's autumn near winter...

Jack was not blind to not see you shivering from the cold! Because jack is a good boye, he'll lend you his Jacket!!!

Seeing you look so smol in his jacket just melts his heart away. It literally looks like a blanket on you with how big it was. I MEAN THIS BOY IS LITERALLY WHOOPING 192CM TALL! GIVE ME UR HEIGHT

He'll just stare at you for minutes while you take walks, if you look close enough, you see his tail wagging and his ear perking up... Maybe a little blush too if you really look close ಠ◡ಠ

But a jacket can only do so much... Even if it was big and warm, your hands were somehow still cold seeing as you rub them every few minutes...

Good boye Jack offers to hold your hands!!! Would you like to accept this kind offer? ∆Yes ✓Yes!

When Jack holds your hands, JACK WAS A HEATER ALL ALONG? Big warm hands.... How comfortable... ;v;

Maybe along the way, he'll put your tiny hands in his pocket too... Who knows... But what you know is that you don't want to go home yet. Can the both of you extend this hand holding session?

Bruh...... tumblr won’t let me use the tags and properly post this... sigh.......

That's about it! I added Kalim and Jack to quench my thirst! And indulge in personal interests Again.. thankz for the request! And I hope you enjoyed this! ಠωಠ sending love before you read the next post under this♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ 

[cozymochi]

I'm sad to see the old art go but happy that you feel better for having removed it 💗

I just. Really really really had to, man. Like, even years ago I voiced how much I wanted it gone and would slowly but surely get rid of lesser content every time it recirculated. But every time I did that somebody would go “nooo dont get rid of it it means so much to me” (especially a few groups)

And i was like eghhh okaaay cuz hey that’s cool but also i was asked

At the time I thought it was fun (i dont even think i was all that into the concept back then excluding the initial inspo, i only wanted to do it to prove somebody could in a non-wack way given all the research I put in…) but years later my mindset towards that stuff in particular shifted a lot despite their apparent appeal. I must have succeeded at my intent given the reception stayed positive for years. Tho, every now and then for years I’d get some fucker in my inbox begging for more content of a thing I haven’t touched in - what - 5 years now? Even if I’d say repeatedly I don’t wanna touch it and never will again. It’s like chipping away at wood or something.

For a minute activity died down and I forgot about them.

Seeing it re-circulate again far more actively now than ever before now just finally threw me out the window.

It’s not like I could ask all these people “HEY MAN QUIT REBLOGGING THAT, I personally hate that content” so I just caved and got rid of all that was left all at once. RIP to all those people who really didn’t want me to for their own personal reasons + the new ppl who just found them but sorry man, it’s been years of not putting myself first. Me wanting it gone outweighs a strangers personal connection to it. Which feels like such an ass thing to say but it’s been years, man. I just don’t feel the same way I once did towards it and if my opinion didn’t soften before there’s no way it would now.

But this is tumblr. They’re still out there. I just have no direct ties anymore and won’t see them in my notes to recirculate ever again 💕💕 that and links are broke. Now they’re in the damn wild at the mercy of all those art theives and reposters even more. But given their popularity, I’m sure some horny bastard already been took them and added them to their fetish collection.

so I guess whoopie

It’ll never truly end. I just curbed a lot now.

yay for finally breaking

[otherlycreatures]

Is there any truth to the autism/changeling theory? I'm autistic and I've always felt an affinity and interest in fae folk. Also I want my true intent to be to see if I feel like I fit in cuz I often feel like an outsider, but in truth, a few wishes would be nice, but you said they don't like to be used. How do I change my intent?

((This was answered before in two posts, but I can’t seem to link them, so I’m reposting them here with both parts included. Warning: Atri got a little heated.))

The Fae Speak:

This is a huge topic, which involves learning about the real stories behind Changelings to begin with, and frankly, deserves it own full post for reference purposes, which is why Atri, and I have not gotten around to answer your other questions in our inbox yet. But for the sake of this conversation, Atri’s willing to add a brief response here.

Short story. People used to blame any unusual behavior, illness, or occurrence on the fae. It’s similar to how a lot of historical religious folk blamed any ‘different’ or ‘not in their line of beliefs’ a result of the devil. Simply put, it’s not true.

Humans have done far more viscous cruelty in the name of faeries to their own kind and children than even the fae have on a whole. Humans used to blame colic, a baby who not stop crying, or any abnormality physically or mentally on the fae. This couldn’t be THEIR child. Something otherly must be wrong.

Do you know how humans used to test an infant to see if they were a changeling? Hold them naked over a fire to see if they’d burn. People used to kill children - their own children because they thought they weren’t their own anymore just because they were sick or born a little different.

The thought that autism warrior mommies think of autism as ‘stealing their sweet normal child’ is DISGUSTING!

Just because a child is different does not mean there is anything wrong with them. Nobody took your fucking child. That is your baby - whole - completely - as their natural true self.

LOVE THEM.

Or we will fucking take them away.

That said, yes, there are fae that do really steal babies, and there are ‘changelings,’ but I’ll post about that on it’s own post in a bit.

(second post)

CHANGELINGS

The Fae Speak:

A lot of stories of Changelings were brought on by humans who could not understand or fathom their infants and children to possibly have anything wrong or different with them. When humans see something ‘wrong’ or ‘odd,’ they like to immediately jump to an outside source of blame because that is a way to process what is going on for them. Especially in times when people did not know or understand illness, or birth defects. A lot of innocent children were killed and hurt in the name of ‘being a changeling,’ and no longer the child they bore.

In a lot of those instances they were innocent children with the unlucky chance of being born into an unwelcoming family to having anything ‘wrong’ with.

That said, yes, fae are known for stealing babies. It’s true, although not all do it. There are many types of fae and species and intents vary tremendously.

Fae take babies for many reasons. Sometimes it’s simply because they like the child, so they take it. They do not see anything wrong with this. To them, they are welcome to anything. They see something they like, they take it. It’s theirs now.

Some may have other reasons, such as payment for something they are claiming on that you owe them.. or vengeance. Some species even may eat them.

So what do the fae do with them? Some may die before they even enter the feary realm. Some may want to raise them. The children will not be human anymore in ‘time.’ The longer a person or child is with the fae, the more fae they become, and will lose all sense of the ‘world’ where they started from.

The purposes and intents vary as individually as the individual fae.

Now, Changelings.

What do the fae leave behind?

If a fae decides to leave something behind in the baby’s stead, it is usually nothing really alive. The same way that a fae will pay with cash to someone who later finds the bills were merely leaves, fae will usually glamour something inanimate to sit there until it ‘dies.’

The most common ‘changelings’ are rocks or a lump of wood glamoured to look like your baby. The reason they seem ‘off’ or sick, is because they are not really a living thing at all. The glamour does not last forever, though, and the ‘baby’ will die. It is why changelings were SICK infants, stemming all the paranoia about any weird infant behavior.

If you think you feel related to a fae, you most likely are not a changeling. Changelings died in infancy or early childhood. Atri says his bet would be more on the offspring of a fae and human mating or something in their ‘line’. Although, he states most halflings if carrying traits of the fae parent, are taken with them, and again glamoured to look as if they were either still born, or lost in the womb. The halfling children walking around as human, are human for all intensive purposes. The fae genes are recessive and dormant, but you may feel a calling, or whispering of that heredity in you somewhere, and you may even have some ‘fae-ish’ traits.

——–

The Fae Speak - to Anon:

Your intent is offensive and rude. The fitting in part was nice, and understandable. Fae enjoy those who just simply appreciate and enjoy their company and don’t just want something, but considering you turned this about to be about granting wishes, he would like to tell you, they are not Tinkerbell and this is not Disneyland. Fae do not grant magical wishes. They help people they want to help, or those whom they feel they can get something from through a deal. How to change your intent? That is up to you and your true inner desires and wants. No body can change that for you.

[orianalamarca]

Cuz real KWEENS 👸🏻 fix each other’s crowns 👑 #Repost @rossellarago ・・・ Bff’s for a cause! 🙏🏻 . Ever since I met @orianalamarca I considered her a kindred spirit. It wasn’t long before we figured out we both have a profound passion for leopard print 🐆 our Nonne 👵🏻 and our Italian heritage 🇮🇹 . Thank you @carolinaherrera for dressing us in these incredible dresses for this event! . When she asked me to partner with her for her annual @armcandy4acause fundraiser benefiting @live.laugh.love.learn.lino I knew it was something i just had to do. . Despite a healthy pregnancy, @live.laugh.love.learn.lino suffered from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) during the birth process in which he had no heartbeat for his first 8-10 minutes of life. During that time his brain received little to no oxygen or blood causing a multitude of lesions and other complications. As a result, parts of his brain had died causing serious brain injury, most of which is related to his fine motor skills. Namely, his mouth & tongue, making it difficult to eat and his fingers & wrists, making it difficult to open a flat hand or grab items. His gross motor skills affected include his arms & legs making it difficult to bend or extend and his trunk & neck making it difficult to hold his head or body upright. But his fine and gross motor skills are just the tip of the iceberg. Other parts of his brain were affected as well and he has had numerous diagnoses in just 20 months, ones that would leave him with a battle to fight every day for the rest of his life. Monies raised will go towards feeding therapy and other therapy Lino will need in the coming months. #armcandy4acause . To purchase the @live.laugh.love.learn.lino #armcandy click the link in bio. To donate directly visit @armcandy4acause ! 🙏🏻 (at Tile & Stone Design Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIPmAxAFhwG/?igshid=eqqv62e1tcck

[nitewrighter]

Hiya, Nite! Big fan here! I was wondering if you could repost the Volskaya Incident and the Hanzo assassination? I'd like to read those (cuz you reference them in other fics) and in your fic masterpost they're listed but not linked :(

The bracketed fics in the Masterpost have been started, but not fully completed yet, so they’re not posted (womp womp sorry folks). But I am working on them!  The reason why they’re mentioned in the masterpost is for me to keep chronological track of everything, IE, this ficlet takes place before Mercy nearly died and Genji stopped dragging his feet vs this ficlet takes place after Mercy nearly died and Genji stopped dragging his feet.

Glad you like the fics!

[afriendlyirin]

Yo-Kai Watch 1 review

Reposting this because I ran afoul of the link bug. @staff​ Fix your website.

Tumblr is a hellsite and I do not respond to comments here. Go to the blog post at Dragon Quill dot net if you want to comment.

I recently tried out the first Yo-Kai Watch game, out of curiosity for what the rest of the mons scene is doing.

My most important takeaway is that anyone who says Yo-Kai Watch is trying to copy or replace Pokemon has clearly not only never played the game but never played any other mons game either and probably thinks Pokemon has a copyright on the genre. The two franchises share a target audience, but otherwise they could not be more different. Yokai talk and are presented as distinct characters, yokai cannot be commanded, and most shockingly of all, the protagonist isn't silent!

As for the game itself, it is a godawful grindy mess that can barely be called a game. But it has some interesting ideas, and I enjoyed the creature designs.

There is basically no gameplay in this game. Yokai fight automatically according to a basic AI with no input from you, so you can quite literally win battles by doing nothing. (There is even a speed-up button to facilitate this.) The only actions you can take are to use items, cure their status ailments through an action-command minigame, activate their supermoves, and swap out your active and reserve yokai. However, the game is so easy that you'll rarely have to do any of that outside of boss fights. Supermoves can basically clear a regular encounter in one use, but regular attacks will usually hand you victory pretty quick too.

The befriending mechanics are even worse. I did not think they could make Pokemon's mechanics worse, but wow, after playing this I am amazed at how much I took for granted.

So, because yokai get to be treated like people, you don't recruit them by shoving them in capsules until they're too tired to break out. Instead, they have a random chance of approaching you after a battle and saying they like the cut of your jib, so they'll agree to be summoned by you any time you need them. This is very cute and raises far fewer questions than Pokemon's version. It is also absolutely terrible as a gameplay mechanic. You can do exactly three things to improve your chances: Throw food at them during the battle, use a yokai with a special ability that makes befriending more likely, and, very rarely, if the battle drags out long enough, you might get a befriending bonus as one of many possible random drops from an event that occurs in the middle of battle. You can only feed a yokai once per battle, you will only know if you've befriended them after the battle is over, and you can only befriend one yokai per battle (out of a possible three). There is absolutely nothing you can do to actively pursue befriending; there is no action you can take in battle that makes it easier like Pokemon's status effects, you cannot keep burning items to increase your chances, you can't even drag the battle out because yokai will attack automatically. To make this even worse, you can't even easily farm encounters like you can in Pokemon, as yokai only appear in specific spots and only one can appear there at a time (if one appears at all!). If you fail to befriend one yokai, you may not encounter it again for some time. (This was the case for me with Happierre, who the game seems to expect you to get quite early, but I never could because he only appears in one very tiny location and if you whiff it, good luck finding him again. Ugh.)

The yokaidex also has really baffling organization. Instead of being numbered by order of encounter like in Pokemon, each type of yokai has its own separate section of the list, and they're ordered seemingly arbitrarily. Your starting yokai is smack dab in the middle of the list, and I don't believe it's possible to encounter entry #1 until the second area. Yokai are also grouped by "family" like in Pokemon, except that the evolution mechanics here are extremely bizarre and inconsistent; usually you have to fuse two specific yokai (or sometimes, a yokai and an extremely rare item you may never even know exists cuz random drops lol), except very rarely you can just level them, not that the game tells you which is which. The game in fact encourages you to constantly replace your team because yokai all have tiered power levels like in Shin Megami Tensei, so you have no reason to keep an outdated yokai in your party long enough for them to evolve through level in the first place. It's just an absolute mess. What was the logic behind this, seriously?

To add insult to injury, they apparently looked at event pokemon and said, "You know what our mons game needs? More of those." There are an absurd number of yokai who can only be obtained through extremely rare in-game events and gacha machine results, and an even larger number who can only be encountered in the postgame. Seriously, I finished the game without even seeing more than half the total yokai. Why??? I genuinely could not believe the final boss was really the end of the game, just because I had barely scratched the surface of the dex.

So yeah. As an RPG, this was a huge disappointment, and as a collection game, it was a constant exercise in frustration and futility. I know Pokemon has lots of room for improvement, but wow, it's like they surgically removed everything it managed to do right.

As for the plot, it's more involved than most Pokemon games, but only just. Every quest is: Something happens that is obviously yokai mischief. "I know this is crazy, but hear me out: Could this incredibly weird and abnormal thing happening in a game called Yo-Kai Watch be happening... because of yokai???" says Exposition Fairy. You walk five steps/talk to someone who is very obviously possessed. "Aha, my Yokai Senses are tingling! A yokai is doing a bad thing!" says Exposition Fairy. "Oh, no, that's bad, we need to stop them!" says Generic Video Game Protagonist. And then you beat the yokai until they stop doing bad things. Repeat times 100.

Seriously, every single freaking time the protagonists are COMPLETELY SHOCKED that a yokai is once again the reason this NPC is literally covered in evil purple smoke because what is subtlety. Why do fantasy stories do this. Why. Stop wasting my time.

And yes, there is an uncomfortable undercurrent of "the spooky goblin man made me do it". Literally the tutorial quest is the protagonist's parents having a fight, and you solve it by beating up the "makes couples fight" yokai that's taken up residence in your living room. It's... okay for a simple kids' story, I guess, and maybe it comes across differently in a Japanese context, but yikes.

Then all of a sudden at the very end you learn that the Yokai Evil Chancellor, who evilly took over after the Good and Noble Yokai King died, is responsible for all the yokai acting up, so you go into the yokai world and beat him up to the tune of a Power of Friendship Speech™ and I could not care less because I was introduced to the guy five minutes ago. So we can't even expect RPGs to have moderately better writing than action games anymore.

They also make the very confusing decision to have a voiced protagonist, despite not giving the protagonist any personality or backstory or agency or anything that would justify giving him a voice in the first place. He is a completely ordinary kid with a completely generic protagonist personality. He either says exactly what I was thinking, in which case I'm just annoyed I have to read through redundant dialogue, or he says something very slightly different, in which case I'm jarred out of the experience because SCREW YOU GAME YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME. They don't even have a practical reason for it, because they have an exposition fairy! I thought the entire point of exposition fairies is to provide information a silent protagonist can't, but instead it just means every cutscene takes twice as long because I have to sit through my avatar metalgearing everything the exposition fairy says.

I wonder if they originally were intending to go with a silent protagonist, but changed it at some point for... some reason?

The silver lining here is the yokai themselves. It is... really the only redeeming feature. The yokai all have absolutely delightful designs, and because they don't have to be ostensibly bound by real ecology, they can go completely wild without it feeling out of place. Thanks to the fact they talk and are treated like real characters, I'm not at all bothered by how many of them are human-like, and nor do we have to ask the question of where they're getting their tools and accessories. But the animal yokai are wonderful as well, and despite how varied the designs are they all felt like they had a clear, consistent aesthetic. I really enjoyed discovering new yokai and analyzing all the little details in them.

And yes, I thought the punny names were hilarious. Because the overall tone is less serious than Pokemon, they can have so much more fun with them without it feeling like breaking character. I particularly got a chuckle out of "Heeheel" and "Fishpicable" -- the fish yokai in general were on-point.

Additionally, though the actual plots of the quests are deep as puddles, I did enjoy how many of them used yokai in such varied ways. In addition to stopping yokai who are influencing people to behave badly, there are also quests where you need to bring in a yokai to influence someone positively, such as giving someone the motivation to do something they're apprehensive about or discouraging someone from an unhealthy obsession. Several quests even involve using a yokai you had to stop in another quest. There's even one where you use a yokai to influence someone, only for them to take it too far, requiring you to stop the yokai you summoned in order to put things back to normal. It certainly raises some interesting ethical questions that the game could have acknowledged a bit more than just in that one quest, but overall I thought it was a clever use of the concept and did an excellent job of reinforcing that yokai aren't just a purely negative force, but a part of nature we can coexist with.

So many of the mechanics I complained about really do make sense from a lore perspective -- the game completely avoids the ethical quandaries raised by Pokemon, and I never at any point felt like I was exploiting my yokai partners or doing anything selfish, even despite the same "gotta catch 'em all" element. Yokai explicitly consent to joining your team; you recruit them by paying attention to what foods they like and showing you are willing to make a real sacrifice to provide for them; and there's none of that stasis capsule nonsense either, yokai friends basically give you the equivalent of a calling card and are only summoned when you need them. (You can actually talk to several recruitable yokai who have fixed hangout spots in the city, which I liked.) Similarly, it makes sense that you shouldn't be able to control their every action. These things just happen to be really unfun game mechanics. But it does make me think that Pokemon could stand to take some lessons from this franchise... just not the ones they actually did. Stop trying to steal their aesthetic, Pokemon, your distinct brand is what makes you strong.

[firstdragonlady]

Hello, I'm not trying to be a bother, I swear, but I was wondering why you took down your Hayffie fic Argentium. Recently I was in the mood to reread some old favorites and, well, I was sad to see it gone. It was probably one of the first Hayffie fics that really made an impression on me. Is there any chance that you might post it again? That said, it is your work and of course you should be able to do what you want with it. In any case, have a great day! gabriellemedilo @ yahoo. com

Hello, lovely one! This brought quite the smile to my face. I'm so honored that something I wrote made any kind of impact on you, and I don't mind answering your question at all!I took down all my fanfics because my career has the potential to make my private life quite public, whether I become well known or not (for those who don't know, I am a professional working actress). At the time, I didn't want it to link back to me, even though I don't even use my real name here, I use a pseudonym. It was most likely propelled by insecurity and embarrassment, quite common for a 19-year-old.However, now I'm 25, more confident (but no less lame and geeky), and wear my badge of fanfic writer with pride. I have been thinking very seriously about reposting all my fanfics, cuz why not? They're a part of me, and though the fandom I belonged to died out and most of my readers moved on, I'm proud of the work I put in. So that is still to be determined! But I would love to repost them again someday.